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I recently accepted a position from Teach and Learn with Georgia, a Georgian Ministry of Education program designed to bring native speakers of English into classrooms around the country. I will be moving to Georgia in August of 2014 to begin my assignment.

Before this latest adventure, I studied at Bogazici University in Istanbul Turkey and at Azerbaijan University of Languages. I speak English German Spanish, Turkish Azerbaijani and Uzbek and am currently trying my hand at Georgian.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Arrival

Well, I have successfully made it to Istanbul. Not that the
trip wasn’t without its thrills. Someday I’m going to discover something really
clever to pass time during layovers. I just haven’t gotten there yet. We were
late getting into Istanbul due to a delay in Amsterdam and I’ll admit that my
brain had just about had it. My Turkish was sounding pretty much awful, the cab
driver from Taksim pulled one over on me much to my later annoyance but at the
time I was just too tired to care. I made it into the dorm, met one of my
roommates, had some food and a shower and collapsed into bed. Jet lag being
what it is I was awake again in a couple of hours, trying to figure out what to
do with myself. I ended up watching an episode of The West Wing and reading
until I felt like I could sleep again. I made sure to get up at a decent time
so that I could make a solid attempt at getting used to the time change. I went
to preregistration in the morning, and shopping, because it was really time to
buy my own food. Luckily, food is dirt cheap in this country and I am now in possession
of enough food stuffs to last for a good while. I was off on a walk when I bumped
into the other student from MSU here and we grabbed a cup of çay and chatted, ran some errands and a
came back to my room to hang up some photos and posters with newly acquired poster
putty in an attempt to make my room look a little less institutional. It feels
pretty successful so far. I’ll be grabbing dinner with Bobbie tonight and then
perhaps a walk along the Bosphorus in Bebek, the neighborhood below ours. This
first day has been primarily errands, catch up and transition, but it seems to
be going swimmingly. Now to find out what tomorrow will bring. But until then, güle güle!

I graduated from Michigan State University in 2014 with degrees in chemistry, anthropology and Turkic languages. When not out globetrotting, I can be found perched in front of my laptop, sharing my adventures with you.